Re: Gas Prices

I drive over 300 miles a week taking my son to school and going to work only...I don't go anywhere else...I even bring my lunch to work and stay there and watch TV rather than going to get something to eat...

Re: Gas Prices

Originally Posted by MamaC;3006328;

On the news today, they said that one gas station was at $3.89 on Friday. Today it was up to $4.01!!! My nearest cheap gas station is still at $3.87, but it will definitely be up to or over $4.00 by next weekend. It will be Memorial Day weekend afterall!

I, too, am thinking more and more about my driving habits. If I need something from the store, and hubby can pick it up on his way home, he will make the stop.

If I am meeting friends for our usual breakfast or lunch catchup, I will bring my grocery list and hit the store on my way home, rather than just go home and go out later in the day.

My daughter has thrown a few hissy fits when I told her I was not taking her and her friends to the mall (the nearest one is 12 miles away...24 mile round trip) just because they are "bored"! None of them have their licenses yet, and I think they will be in for a really rude awakening when that day does come. Some of their part-time jobs will not cover a tankful of gas, that's for sure!

One of my daughter's friends is now working part time at a grocery store and her whole paycheck goes for gas and insurance for her car. She had wanted a car, got her grandmother's hand me down and is now busting her butt to pay for it. She told my daughter that she doesn't make enough to pay for gas other then to drive herself to work and school.

Re: Gas Prices

Originally Posted by barefootdyke;3006383;

i used to love to go for a drive on a pretty spring day, camera in tow. i just can't afford it anymore.

me too! I'm an avid photographer, especially nature shots, and I used to drive all over the East coast with my Nikon and family in tow searching out shots and I haven't done this in months! It saddens me because I really miss it but I just don't want to pay the gas prices anymore so I've started doing more still life shots at home and focusing more on found objects.

I drive 250 miles a week, just work and the son to school and home. My husband drives 520 miles a week just going to work and home. So our weekend trips have gone from driving all over the place sightseeing and getting shots to just sitting at home. Grocery trips are made on the way home. *sighs* I do miss the carefree days of not having to factor in gas to see if we could afford a trip up into the mountains.

Myrosiedog: Please tell me that $10 a gallon by labor day was a typo! If it gets that high? I'm just going to quit working and stay home. Not worth it driving this far when gas is that high.

Re: Gas Prices

Originally Posted by Harmony2000;3006723;

me too! I'm an avid photographer, especially nature shots, and I used to drive all over the East coast with my Nikon and family in tow searching out shots and I haven't done this in months! It saddens me because I really miss it but I just don't want to pay the gas prices anymore so I've started doing more still life shots at home and focusing more on found objects.

I drive 250 miles a week, just work and the son to school and home. My husband drives 520 miles a week just going to work and home. So our weekend trips have gone from driving all over the place sightseeing and getting shots to just sitting at home. Grocery trips are made on the way home. *sighs* I do miss the carefree days of not having to factor in gas to see if we could afford a trip up into the mountains.

Myrosiedog: Please tell me that $10 a gallon by labor day was a typo! If it gets that high? I'm just going to quit working and stay home. Not worth it driving this far when gas is that high.

I wish I could say it was, but I've heard it twice now on some news programs. Let's hope it's not or everyone is going to be staying home all the time.

Re: Gas Prices

I have heard it a couple of times too -- that gas could go up to $10 a gallon by Labor Day. It is just insane.

I wish public transportation was an option around here, but it isn't. My son was looking into taking the bus to work, which is about a 30-minute car ride. It would take him approximately 2 hours to get to his job by bus. Buses do not run anywhere near where my husband or daughter work, so they need their cars. At least daughter has a Honda Civic, so she is getting good gas mileage. Hubby has taken to using my mom's old car (meant for the younger daughter) to get to and from work, as it gets much better mileage than his truck.

We have cut back on a lot of other things....eating out, shopping just because we can(!), etc. Still, when we have gone out to eat, restaurants are still packed and the mall lots are still pretty full. I think it is just a matter of time before these venues see a real decline in their number of patrons.

We have no plans for any major vacation this summer. I actually think it might be nice just to stay at home and cross off some of those items on our "to do" lists.

Re: Gas Prices

I think those that are making adjustments now will be better off when the prices hit the expected highs because they are already used to a cheaper lifestyle. Those that are still packing the malls, still driving their SUV's all over the place and aren't trying to get rid of them now will be hurting.

So listen to this. We tried to trade our SUV in for a Prius and was told by the dealer that they will not be able to work with our trade-in because they aren't accepting SUV's as trade-ins anymore since they are so hard to sell. Going to a different dealer but I think its a sign of times to come.

Forewarned is forearmed, don't wait till the prices get to the rumored $10 a gallon to try and unload that gas guzzler.

Re: Gas Prices

Originally Posted by Harmony2000;3007262;

I think those that are making adjustments now will be better off when the prices hit the expected highs because they are already used to a cheaper lifestyle. Those that are still packing the malls, still driving their SUV's all over the place and aren't trying to get rid of them now will be hurting.

So listen to this. We tried to trade our SUV in for a Prius and was told by the dealer that they will not be able to work with our trade-in because they aren't accepting SUV's as trade-ins anymore since they are so hard to sell. Going to a different dealer but I think its a sign of times to come.

Forewarned is forearmed, don't wait till the prices get to the rumored $10 a gallon to try and unload that gas guzzler.

I just read something about that here. That people almost can't GIVE away their SUV's. The dealers aren't taking them as trade in's and are trying everything in the world as incentives to sell new ones.
I'm so glad we never bought one. We came close a couple times.

Re: Gas Prices

But Marci Solomon is hoping she'll be the one laughing -- all the way to the bank -- when her Geo Metro saves her from skyrocketing gas prices.

Solomon, like many others, was taking a huge hit when it came to gas prices. With her 100-mile commute to and from work each day, she saw no end in sight. Then she rediscovered the Geo Metro.

"I used to be a car snob, and I used to be too vain to drive anything that doesn't shine," said Solomon, an electrician. "But now it's about, do I want to eat, or do I want to make it to work? I want to do both."

The Metro has been making a huge comeback, especially on eBay, where Solomon bought the car, because of its extremely high gas mileage.

The 1996 Metro's average of 40 miles per gallon nears that of the hybrid 2008 Toyota Prius -- priced at $21,000 for the cheapest model -- and bests most current cars by a long shot, according to government ratings. Older models of the Geo Metro, specifically cars from 1991 and the XFi edition, have the same average as the hybrid.

Solomon toyed with the idea of purchasing a Prius but decided that for a price of $7,300, the Metro was the more economical option.

For the most part, Solomon plans on using the car for commuting from her home in Rochester, Washington, to her job. The vehicle she has now, a Honda Element, was getting 28 mpg, and she was filling up twice a week, costing her nearly $100. Stations were charging $3.97 a gallon in her area Tuesday, she said.

The Metro is an investment in the future, Solomon said, even if she did pay more than five times the Blue Book value of the car.

"It was all about saving money," she said. "I don't think gas is ever going to go down, and these are going to be the types of solutions we have to turn to. I wanted to beat the rush."

The rush may have begun.

The 1996 2-door 3-cylinder Metro Solomon now owns opened on eBay May 7 with a bid of $200. A week later, Solomon won the car auction with a bid of $7,300. In 1995, a new Metro hatchback sold for about $9,000, according to Auto Mall USA.

In May alone, 43 Metros of various years and models were sold on eBay, ranging in price from $221.50 to Solomon's bid of $7,300. The cars have been hot items, drawing upwards of 49 bids on certain vehicles, with many of the auctions coming down to last-second bidding wars. On Tuesday morning, 34 Metros were still up for grabs.

Since her eBay purchase, Solomon has acquired another Metro, which she is considering flipping on eBay for profit. She has her eye on a third at a local car lot.

"To be honest, I'm thinking of scarfing up any Geo Metro I can find," she said.

Solomon isn't alone in trying to profit off of a gas-saving craze. Brenton Netz has been selling fixed-up Metros and Ford Festivas for two years now.

After buying a Metro on Craigslist in Montana and driving it back to his home in St. Cloud, Minnesota, Netz realized how rarely he was making trips to the pump.

He realized that he had stumbled upon a possible side business and began buying one-way tickets to states in the West to purchase as many of the cars as he could. Netz said he has sold about a dozen cars and has eight more sitting in his backyard.

His cars go up for sale only one at a time because he knows that putting up a couple at a time would drive down the value and cut into his profit.

Netz says consumers don't seem to mind paying more than the retail value, and if they do, they generally stop feeling that way after they pick up the cars. He's gotten phone calls and e-mails from customers saying how thrilled they are with the mileage.

It seems, Netz said, people are beginning to realize that their car choices need to be focused more on practicality than status and appearance.

"Gas prices are definitely driving increased popularity in the Metro, which at times wasn't cool," he said. "Now the coolness factor is stemming from the fact that you're getting 50 miles per gallon and never having to fill up."

i do love my taurus, but i MISS MY 1997 GEO METRO something fierce right about now!!